Friday, April 12, 2013

Tea, Tomatoes and Critters

I am having one of Siam Tee's Oolongs today. It is Chaa Nang Ngam - DMS Beauty Oolong. The leaves are tightly wrapped in little balls. The packet has a dusty floral smell, with a hint of sharp library paste. I love the packets these come in - vacuum shrunk metallic, with a lovely picture on the front. This one is basically pink with a pretty woman on the front.

First, I rinsed it for a few seconds and then brewed it about a minute - not too impressive, yet. A nice floral aroma, and a somewhat slight floral taste. The leaves are barley unfurled.

Second wash, the aroma has shifted to a tart, almost unpleasant one, reminiscent of black currants. About 3/4ths of the leaves are unfurled. There is a somewhat sharp flavor as well. I let this second infusion go too long. I'll try again tomorrow when I will have more time. I am sorry I tried this today, as I am not patient. I really didn't give it a good test.

There are more signs of Spring - my heart rejoices with each and every one. The tiny white flowers of rock cress are blooming and in the woods, the small oven bird is calling in a very loud voice, "teacher, teacher, teacher". The woods below us are really flaunting the red of new buds and hooray, a lot of bulbs are poking up their heads, especially the little scilla, which are real favorites of mine. Sadly, the less attractive features are here as well, including a front yard barely above the water line and those pesky deer, who are getting redder by the day, eating my day lily leaves. I put this really noxious spray on them and perhaps it will help.

The birds are multiplying like crazy, today there were all our woodpeckers, the goldfinches, a cardinal, the grackles, blue birds, a white breasted nuthatch, a tufted titmouse and a huge! crow.The squirrels are out running around. I feed them peanuts, but there is one golden eared one who absolutely has to raid the bird feeder. He is not high on my popularity list.

Last night I went to a really interesting demo on grafting tomatoes. It's really quite easy and the success rate is high. The grafted ones are more disease resistant, produce more fruit over a longer period of time. I have two itty bitty ones and we'll see how they do. I was surprised to be told that any day it is over 50 I should put them out. We'll see about that as well. Oh, I am just so HAPPY that spring is coming on.

About Me

I've been reading a lot of really good blogs on tea but wanted to cover less fruity teas and since I've been a timid tea-taster, I wanted to put forth my two cups worth on more middle of the road tea. However, as I go along, I find my horizons broadening. Hooray!